"user variables"

Many people love and frequently use USER VARIABLES w/in FrameMaker. Then they get the bright idea of searching for a product name and REPLACE by PASTING FROM CLIPBOARD to insert a VARIABLE. Often, the font values are different from the rest of the paragraph. This short video shows you how to redefine VARIABLES with so that your VARIABLE will pick up all font values from its new host paragraph.

FrameMaker 11's user variables are highly useful for product, people or place names that are subject to change when you need a different version of a project. Fortunately, you can redefine user variables ahead of time in external templates, and then change both definition and formatting of a term in a flash. Watch this brief video to find out just how easy it is!

Although Word has a loose equivalent to user variables, this features is far easier and more straight-forward in FrameMaker 11. Unlike Word, no macros or arcane program strings are required. User variables are ideal for product names, company locations, designated staff members ... anything that is likely to change in your document. Simple actions allow you to globally update not only the content of variables, but their appearance as well. You can combine this feature with conditional text control, which allows you to swiftly "show" or "hide" different sections of text, tables or entire graphics that are associated with a certain version of your documentation. This allows a single set of source files to produce multiple versions of your documentation for various customers or internal content consumers. These features can be invoked with simple keyboard shortcuts while authoring, and you can import their values and setting from one document into an entire book!